2013 Breeders' Cup Turf: Magician magical in win

Going into the Breeders’ Cup Turf, all the hype was centered on the lone filly contender The Fugue,
and rightly so. She should have been last year’s winner of the Filly & Mare
Turf, but had a horrendous trip. Since then, she has competed against the best
Europe had to offer, notching two huge wins in her previous two starts to
qualify for both the Turf and the Filly & Mare Turf. She was strictly the
one to beat despite not having a win against males at the 12 furlong Turf
distance. She looked a winner in deep stretch, but the thing about horse racing
is that it rarely goes according to the script.

At the break, longshot Teaks North went for the lead, and
defending champion Little Mike sat
right off of him. Morning line and post time favorite The Fugue, with jockey William Buick in the irons, got a much
better trip than this time last year. Rather than getting bottled up on the
inside, she was able to get a good mid-pack position on the outside. Ramsey
owned Big Blue Kitten was the early
trailer.

On the front end, Teaks North set a modest 24 flat first
quarter despite the downhill run. The tempo quickened into the next quarter,
and the half mile went in 46:94. The fast pace continued with Little Mike
hounding the 95-1 longshot through three quarters in 1.10:67 and the mile in
1.35:26. Midway through the final turn, last year’s gutsy winner came away with
the lead, but he wouldn’t keep it for long. Entering the stretch, Little Mike,
Vagabond Shoes, who ran a huge race, and The Fugue lined up across the track,
battling for the lead. The Fugue, who started moving early, grabbed the lead
and looked a winner, but unfortunately for her, the wire didn’t come soon
enough.

The lone 3-year old in the field, Magician, was making a huge move down the center of the trip. After
staying “covered up” for much of the race, he moved to the outside of Real
Solution and Point of Entry in the stretch. With nothing in front of him, the
Irish 2000 Guineas winner knew it was time to get down to business, and get to
down to business he did. Overcoming a slight speed bias, he certainly sprouted
wings in order to gun down The Fugue in the final strides of the race, getting
the win by about half a length.

Ridden by Ryan Moore and trained by Aidan O’Brien, Magician returned $27.00/$11.80/$7.00 for a $2 bet.
Favored The Fugue returned $4.40/$3.00, and Argentinean bred Indy Point
returned $5.40 for the show. Magician completed the mile and a half in 2.23:23,
the second fastest running of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, behind only Little Mike’s
2.22:83 time 2012 time. Point of Entry
got up for 4th, and he was followed by Vagabond Shoes, Twilight
Eclipse, Little Mike, Big Blue Kitten, Real Solution, Skyring, Teaks North, and
Tale of a Champion.

Today’s win was a vindication of sorts for the 3-year old
son of international super sire Galileo. Shortly before his last race, the Group
1 St. James Palace Stakes, the colt was injured in a swimming pool incident. O’Brien
made the decision to run him anyway, but after Magician was eased in the
stretch, O’Brien stated that he should not have run him. That race was back in
June, and the colt did not run again until today. O’Brien trained him during
the layoff to run the mile and a half. His St. James decision might not have
been the best, but O’Brien showed why he is one of the top trainers in the
world when his training tactics paid off on such a huge stage.

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Despite growing up in a non-horse racing state, Ashley has
been a fan of the sport since a young age. Her love for horse racing was
fostered through the kids’ book series Thoroughbred
by Joanna Campbell, and it was her love of reading and horses that led her to
educate herself on the ins and outs of the sport. Since becoming actively
involved in the industry just a few short years ago, Ashley has had the
opportunity to meet many important players in the industry, attend the Eclipse
Awards, see personal favorite Mucho Macho Man race twice in person, and get to
personally meet and befriend many of the fantastic fans and horsemen involved
in the sport.

Before joining Horse Racing Nation, Ashley created her own
blog Wired with Ashley Paige. The
idea to venture into the world of blogging came to her when she realized that
she had much to say about horse racing and no one to say it to at the time. Ashley began her time with Horse Racing Nation blogging as The Florida Filly. Using that moniker, she mainly covered racing in South Florida but also blogged about nationwide racing, industry issues, and from time to time offered her opinion on how various changes could be beneficial to the industry as a whole. A move north to New Hampshire began both a new chapter in both Ashley's personal life and professional life. She currently pens the new From Coast to Coast blog for HRN, which is simply a revamped version of The Florida Filly. Don't let the new look and name change fool you, though. Ashley still brings to the table the same great coverage as From Coast to Coast as she did for The Florida Filly. Ashley also participates as a voter in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Polls.

An alumni of Macon State College, Ashley is from Central
Georgia but is currently living in New Hampshire with her husband Chris and their two sons Charlie and Michael. A stay-at-home mom, Ashley juggles parenting with blogging and her other passions. Aside from horse racing, Ashley is a fervent football fan, enjoys reading and studying history, and hopes to someday author a historical work covering the Tudor
period as well as biographies of horse racing’s stars, equine and human alike.